Fencers split bouts against Brown, others

By Sara Ontiveros

The MIT women's varsity fencing team got the dual meet season off to a
strong start this past weekend against New York University, Vassar College
and hosts Brown University. Also, the junior varsity squad defeated the
Wellesley College JV team.

MIT fenced NYU to a close 7-9 loss. The score was even at 4-4 after two
rounds, but dropped to 5-7 in the third. Ronke Olabisi '93 and Felice Swapp
'92 won their matches in the final round, but the Lady Blades' comeback
attempt fell short. Three of MIT's seven victories came from Swapp, two
from Sara Ontiveros '93 and one from Heather Klaubert '94 and Olabisi.

The MIT women swept the first and second rounds against Brown, 8-0. By
the end of the meet, the score stood at 14-2, with Brown scoring only 20
touches on the MIT team, a clear victory for the Lady Blades. All four of
Ontiveros' victories were 5-0, as were two of Swapp's four. Olabisi,
Klaubert, Kathryn Fricks '92 and Shing Kong '94 also contributed wins to
this match.

Vassar also fell in a 14-2 victory, including an MIT sweep of the final
round. Swapp took four victories (including two 5-0 bouts), Ontiveros took
four and Klaubert won three. Fricks, Olabisi and Tzu Yi Chen '95 each
contributed one victory.

The women's JV squad narrowly beat rival Wellesley by a score of 9-7. MIT
led 3-1 at the end of the first round, helped out by a decisive 5-1 victory
by Olabisi. By the fourth round, however, only Chen took the winning match,
a close 5-4 victory. Contributing to the JV victory were Olabisi who took
two bouts, Klaubert with two and Chen, who captured a total of three.
Fricks and Kong each took one bout.

Men's fencers fare well

The men's varsity and JV teams held their own against Tufts, NYU, Brown
and Vassar. To kick off the day, the JV men narrowly defeated Tufts 15-12.
The sabre squad slashed through the Tufts team with an 8-1 record. Mark
Hurst '94 and Rene Despinos '94 each took three wins, and Charles Baround
'93 snared two. The foil squad narrowly lost to Tufts, 4-5. Scoring the MIT
victories were Freeland Abbott '92 and Luis Maldonado '92, each with one,
and Kris Geising '93 with two. The epee squad also fell to Tufts 3-6, with
Captain Henrik Martin '93, William Chavez '94 and Glenn Narvaez '94 each
winning one bout apiece.

The men's team then fell to NYU in a 10-17 loss. The sabres completed
their round 1-8, with Hurst taking the sole bout from NYU. Maldonado and
Abbott each took two bouts, but the foil squad lost 4-5. The epee squad
eked out a 5-4 victory from Ed Chin '92 (two wins), Chavez (two) and Martin
(one).

The epee squad repeated their feat against Brown, again winning 5-4 in an
11-16 loss. Martin swept his three bouts, while Chavez and Chin each
claimed one. In foil, MIT claimed only three bouts, with one win apiece
from Abbott, Maldonado and Rhodney Edouard '94. The sabre squad met the
same fate as Despinos took two victories and Hurst grabbed another.

The MIT fencers faced Vassar last and defeated them in a whopping 19-8
victory. The sabre squad swept through their competition 8-1. Three bouts
went to both Hurst and Despinos, and Baroud claimed two. The men's foil
squad fought Vassar to a 6-3 victory with Abbott sweeping all three of his
bouts and Maldonado, Edouard, and Geising each claiming one each. The epee
squad also prevailed, 5-4. Two bouts went to Martin and Chavez, and Chin
took one.

Sara Ontiveros '93 is a member of the MIT women's varsity fencing
team.